Aquifers' levels a major issue

Pickens and Arrington, a Hemphill County property owner involved in oil and gas, objected to a Groundwater Management Area 1 plan to set different goals for how much water should be left in the Ogallala and Rita Blanca aquifers in different areas.

The plan, which they considered unreasonable, calls for an average of 40 percent of the water to be left in the northwest Panhandle after 50 years, 80 percent in Hemphill County and 50 percent in most of the rest of the Texas Panhandle.

The water board will meet Wednesday to consider the appeals and the staff report. An attempt to reach the attorney representing Pickens and Arrington for comment was unsuccessful Monday.

A major argument in the appeals was about whether Groundwater Management Area 1 was essentially taking private property without compensation when it set goals requiring groundwater conservation districts to create and enforce rules limiting pumping.

Steve Stevens, a representative of Pickens' Mesa Water, testified earlier in the year that only allowing the removal of 20 percent of the water under Hemphill County "makes the water in Hemphill County we own worthless."

Mesa bought water rights in the region in hopes of marketing water to large cities downstate. Its appeal maintains that there should only be one goal for the area: to treat all water owners equally.

Arrington testified that the move greatly would affect the value of his property because his "neighbor across the Roberts County line has the right to pump 50 percent - or to use 50 percent in 50 years, and I have the right to 20 percent in 50 years (meaning) my land will be drained."

The water board staff said in its report that board members have no jurisdiction over the argument because water ownership is a matter of law currently under review by the Texas Supreme Court.

Pickens and Arrington also argued that water district members of the management area carved it into three regions based on county lines, while water supply and use across the Panhandle are fairly uniform.

But the water board's staff disagreed.

"Staff is persuaded by the districts' testimony and evidence that the districts have considered the potential impact of their decision on all users and uses of groundwater in GMA 1, and have achieved a balance ... for all sectors of the district, including the water marketers," the report said.

Another argument in the challenge involved considering and balancing potentially divergent interests including municipal, agricultural, industrial, environmental and recreational. Pickens and Arrington said the districts in the GMA 1 didn't account for the socioeconomic impact of the goals they set. But the water board's staff found that testimony and its own analysis demonstrated the districts did consider the impacts.

The report notes that changing the 40 percent goal to 50 percent would cost northwest Texas counties a total of $358 million in economic activity - primarily by curtailing irrigated farming - over 50 years. The 80 percent goal would allow continued recreational uses of the land in Hemphill County while allowing for the marketing of some water. The report said the rest of the Panhandle's goal of 50 percent would have no socioeconomic impact, because water use could stay about the same as today.

A computer simulation shows the range of how much water would be left in the three areas that make up the management area. In the northwest, Dallam County would have 23 percent left while Sherman County would have 57 percent.

In the area with a 50 percent goal, Hutchinson County would have 44 percent remaining while Randall County would have 74 percent. In between would be counties like Lipscomb and Oldham, with 57 percent left. Potter County would have 45 percent remaining.

The average amount of water left in the entire management area in 50 years would be 49 percent, according to the report.